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THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG
By: Muriel Barbery
Europa Editions
September 2008
On Sale: September 2, 2008
336 pages
ISBN: 1933372605
EAN: 9781933372600
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
The enthralling international bestseller. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. RenΓ©e, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, RenΓ©e is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the buildingβs tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Then thereβs Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma and RenΓ©e hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Palomaβs trust and to see through RenΓ©eβs timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.
 Media BuzzFair Game with Faith Salie - December 17, 2008
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